Thursday, May 21, 2009

Around the House: Nothing special this week. We are gearing up for a busy couple of weeks coming up though. Graduations, end of the school year, yard sale, dentist and doctor appointments. After all of that we should be able to actually enjoy the rest of our summer.

In the Kitchen: I've been trying to get rid of stuff that's been piling up in the freezer. I'm getting down to the end of it so I need to get creative pretty soon. What can I make with frozen lima beans, 2 frozen biscuits and apple juice concentrate? I had a craving this morning, so I'll be making my favorite cinnamon rolls tonight for breakfast tomorrow (or maybe Saturday).

New with Embry:Embry has been gong to bed early a lot lately. Not so much because she's tired, but because she has been misbehaving. She is perfect most of the day, but the minute that Daddy walks in the door after work, she turns into a completely different child. We assumed that it was the lack of attention that she receives at this time of day, because we are preoccupied with dinner and baths and bedtime. But even after making time for just her every evening for a week, nothing has changed. Hopefully, it's just a phase...

New with Matthew: Last week, Matthew figured out how to use a fork and spoon by himself. So now he wants no help eating no matter how big of a mess he makes in the process. Very cute, but very messy.

I am Grateful For: So many things lately, I'll just have to say the love of family and friends.

The Weather Outside: Gorgeous, Gorgeous, Gorgeous! Although it has been a little unpredictable (40 degrees one night, 85 the next day) I love spring in the Midwest.

I am Obsessed With: Oh my Gosh! I was finally convinced to watch Lost, when I found out that abc.com has EVERY episode from all 5 seasons for free online. It has been 2 weeks, and I am up to season 2, episode 3. I spend every moment of free time that I have watching it. I bring the laptop into the kitchen when I cook and into the bedroom when I fold laundry. It is like the best soap opera ever, only with good acting. In fact, what am I doing blogging when I could be watching Lost...gotta go!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Another beautiful Sunday morning... another fun day at the zoo. Embry has been asking about the stingrays for months and they finally arrived at the zoo this weekend. So, of course, we had to go and see them. This is not her first stingray experience, however. We saw lots of them at the Georgia Aquarium when she was 1 1/2 (one of the most awesome places ever!) but I'm pretty sure she doesn't remember.

So we went early, so as to avoid the crowds that always come with a new exhibit, and also to avoid the extra charge that is waived for the first hour that the zoo is open. (We have a zoo membership, so virtually everything else is free for us as well.) We still had to wait in line, but for less than 10 minutes, which was not too bad since Embry is surprisingly patient with this type of thing. As we got to the front of the line, we were instructed to scrub our hands and arms up to our elbows at a washing station before we went in. Then a zookeeper showed us, with the help of a stuffed stingray puppet, the correct (and incorrect) way to pet them.

Embry was so excited as we walked in and sat next to the shallow pool that the stingrays were in. The wall around it was just high enough that Embry could still reach her hands into the water. The stingrays were just swimming around in circles and coming up to peoples' hands to be pet. Very cool. It was easy for the adults to reach deep enough, but we had to lift Embry up a little. After about 5 minutes a big one swam near enough and shallow enough and she got to feel it! She described it as "like a puff ball," which I assume means soft.

Like all popular park exhibits we had to exit through a gift shop filled with ocean themed paraphernalia. Embry is not normally the type of kid who begs for this stuff, because she knows we don't buy it, but Grandma was with us. So she came home with a surprisingly cute stuffed stingray with a tail on it so long that I had to tie it up so that it wouldn't drag on the ground. Thus adding to her collection of usual stuffed animals. "Ray," as we now refer to him, has joined "Lou" the emu, "Corn" the otter, and "Crackers" the horse.

**I just had to include this cute top-of-Matthew's-head picture. Enjoy!

Friday, May 8, 2009

A few months ago Matthew became very attached to a stuffed bear that I received as a gift at my baby shower. The bear originally came with blue pajamas on, but Embry undresses everything, so the pj's quickly went by the wayside before Matthew was even born. Matthew carries the bear around most of the day, and absolutely will not sleep without it. I wash it at least once a week, since it spends so much time on his mouth. So, we decided to buy him a spare. You'd think this would be an easy task... not so much.

I looked around and quickly found the bear for sale, so I purchased one and waited for it to arrive. I was so excited when it arrived, that I would finally have a bear to give Matthew while I wash the other one. Embry took it out of the box and immediately noticed that the pajamas were not removable! I handed it to Matthew, he took one look and threw it on the floor. This didn't surprise me since it was totally different than his bear.

So, I sent the bear back and soon after found out that all of this line of bears has non-removable pj's. They no longer make the one that Matthew has. Thank goodness for eBay. After confirming twice that it had pj's that were completely removable, I bid on and won an old (but not used) pajama bear.

When it arrived, I unpacked it, removed the pajamas and gave it to Matthew for approval. He took it and immediately ran to his room. I followed him in and watched as he took his old bear out of his crib looked at both of them and threw the new one on the floor. He wants nothing to do with it. I've even washed it a few times so that it smells the same and is no longer fluffy like a new stuffed animal. So much for that idea. I guess we'll keep it around for emergencies.

**Differences between siblings***Embry really never had a blankie or luvie stuffed animal. She was fine as long as she had her pacifiers (or nuk as we called it). And she never complained about what type or color she had, as long she had at least 2 of them to sleep with. So when one got lost I simply replenished it with one from my stash of 15 or so.